Anbumani Ramadoss urges caste census to use official lists

PMK president and Rajya Sabha member Anbumani Ramadoss has written to all MPs, urging them to press the Union government to revise the caste data collection method for the upcoming census. He warned that leaving the caste column blank for open responses would cause widespread administrative confusion and render the data useless for social justice policies.

Ramadoss, a former Union minister, said reports indicate the Registrar General of India plans to let enumerators record whatever name citizens provide. He argued this would inflate the number of castes because people often cite sub-castes instead of officially recognised categories. He proposed integrating existing Central and State caste lists into the digital census software, allowing enumerators to select from a dropdown menu.

He pointed to the successful use of this method in Bihar's 2023 survey and Telangana's 2024 survey, which yielded accurate data. The second phase of individual data collection is scheduled to start on September 1. Ramadoss urged MPs to act swiftly to fix the methodology before then.